Hello everybody!I am a french student at the end of study period. I have done a engineering school in IT and have completed it with one year in a business school, specialization consulting. We call it double diploma engineer-manager in France. After passing several recruitment steps, I have currently two propositions for a six-months internship mandatory to validate my engineering school and my school of management. Both are in Paris; the first one is for PwC Advisory and second one for Accenture. The salary is quite similar (around 1600€) and both are pre-employment internship. I want to find a job in consulting IT but I am also strongly in interest by financial.I have checked a lot on internet. According to the Vault rating PwC is now "better" than Accenture and have a better prestige :http://www.vault.com/wps/portal/usa/rankings/individual?rankingId1=248&rankingId2=-1&rankings=1&regionId=0&rankingYear=2013 But in general, on different forums, people says that Accenture is better.I also have the intuition that the job will be more interesting in Accenture as a junior than in PwC. I am looking for something interesting and I want have real tasks to realize and not just make coffee if you see what I mean ;).I need to take a decision very soon and I really don't know what I will do for now.Thank you for your help!PS : Sorry for my poor english

Hi Graine'X,Which school were you at? I spent a year at one of the ENSI as part of an exchange programme quite a few years ago during my undergraduate days.The answer really depends on what you're going to be doing during the internship and what it is you want to end up doing. If you want more of a finance or accountancy slant then PWC is going to be the better option, but if you're more IT focussed then ACN wins.I would very much hope that neither of them will have you making the coffee.EC

Thank you very much for your answer EC!My engineering school is INSA de Rennes and my school of management Audencia Nantes.I don't really know about finance or IT I really like both and the idea will be to use both competencies ;). And for a internship where will I learn more interesting things?Any others comments people?

The internship wont carry more or less weight with either firm - although your experience of it certainly will. You could look at whether PwC or Accenture have a better reputation in your local market - or are more established etc. I suspect you are not entirely set on your career direction yet, in which case I would opt for PwC as the Advisory work would give you more opportunities to get involved at a non-critical level where you wont need specific technical skills. I suspect also the PwC experience will be more useful for graduate interviews - you would acquire more 'polish' from rubbing shoulders with the PwC crowd. But I really am just picking out positives to differentiate a choice, and could as easily do that for Accenture.There really isnt much in it Graine'X - pick whichever you feel more positive about, as it is what you make of the internship which will matter.

Thank marsday for your answer!In fact I think that the consulting department of PwC in France are not really well develop for now.I know that both are good but as we have say it not really the same strategy and I prefer have a well reflective decision on it ;)Does it someone here who have work for PwC in advisory department?

I've not worked for either PwC Advisory or Accenture (obviously - I'm a HH) but I have recruited for both - and spent most of the last 10 years talking with consultants from both firms. These days those conversations tend to be at the SM - Partner levels, so I have a good sense of them as potential employers. What I was trying to say Graine - rather poorly - is that for an internship the brand from either will give you the 'rubber stamp' of approval from a blue chip firm. Really there isnt much/anything to choose between, so go with your instincts (perhaps on basis of who you liked when you interviewed) or even toss a coin.No firm is perfect. What matters, the only thing that matters, is that you enjoy the internship and have opportunities to contribute to your team and make yourself useful. That's all you can take from an internship.Come graduation you will likely be applying to both anyway :)

Graine'X,Accenture has a decent foothold in La Defense with the big FMCGs and banks. I don't know how much advisory work actually takes place in PwC Paris. As others have advised, go with the one that "feels" right, as they are equally good on the CV (but for different areas).

Best decision-making advice I've heard for this kind of thing:1. Decide to flip a coin.2. Assign heads to option A, tails to option B.3. Flip the coin.4. Assess how you feel about the result.

5. Keep flipping coin based on outcomes of 4. until you get result you wanted in the first place. Apparently the odds aren't exactly 50/50 so you may want to decide on which internship you want before flipping the coin to decide and assign the preferred option to the side facing up.Sorry - got to maintain a sense of humour :)